Is journalism dead or just very biased?

Mark Twain once said “If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” Unfortunately, it appears there is too much truth in this statement of humor. When the New York Times sends unpublished columns to the Obama Administration to be vetted, or when CNN’s Peter Hanby has a “donate to Obama” link on his Twitter account, you know objectivity has gone out the window.

Gone too is individual creativity. It has been squelched in favor of collective thought as witnessed by the open mic at the press pool where reporters engaged in collusion around a single question to ask candidate Mitt Romney regarding our embassy breach and murder of our fellow citizens. Away from any responsibility in analysis of our current foreign policy, they chose instead to deflect and distract from performing their due diligence.

The failures do not stop at the national level. All too often the local papers, which should represent broadly and fairly the community they serve, routinely dismiss any Op-Ed or press release from local residents who do not share their point of view or back up the narrative they are charged with putting forward. When was the last time you were able to read about a local Tea Party event or hear an opinion expressed by a resident Libertarian? If you were the gullible sort, you would believe only the Occupy Movement existed. Educated persons seek multiple opinions and sources in order to obtain the truth. Why does the media fear that so? Is it a personal interest they wish to protect?

There is no shortage of news or reporters, only a desperate lack of journalism.